Manga drawings skills, chat & chill!

Sundays this summer have been the day for some chilled out drawing since Manga artist Irina Richards began leading us through our online Manga Sundays sessions. It’s definitely been a friendly place for budding Manga artists to meet up, with lots of chat going on alongside drawing about all things Manga (… & cats – which could also be Manga?!)

It’s been so cool to watch everyone’s drawing evolve..

Irina has been screen sharing as she draws & illustrated how to draw:

  • Manga faces – from the front and side
  • Manga hair (this can be pretty big & sometimes spiky)
  • Manga eyes (including shinies!)
  • Emotions using eyes, eyebrows and mouth expressions
  • Kawaii (cute & simplified faces which were apparently the origin of emojis)
  • Chibi characters – small child like figures with exaggerated emotions & big round faces
  • Figures – using action figures to help us with poses & proportions (child = 3 heads, adult = 6/7 heads)
  • Hands and fingers (this was hard but then apparently, “art is not always straightforward” – Irina)
  • Your story – sketching out beginning, middle & end using ‘Yon Koma’ – a series of comic boxes
  • Your ‘OC’ (original character) – original drawings you can refer back to as you develop your story!
  • Backgrounds + foreground and midground characters – creating a whole scene!

We also talked about research you might want to do before you start your story:

  • Where is your character from?
  • What would they wear?
  • What is their home / environment like?

“It doesn’t matter if you don’t think you’re a very good artist. The only way of getting better at art is to make art and keep drawing!”

– Irina Richards : instagram takeover

Check out Irina’s @haveyoutalent instagram takeover!

  • Get the details on how, when and why Irina got into Manga drawing
  • Take a look around her home studio & see a ClipStudio demo
  • Find out where she got the inspiration for her best known work ‘Chemical Blue’
  • See inside her latest graphic novel Witchmarked and…..
  • See Irina’s amazing collection of pens!!!

“Look at things people have done that you like, then take what you like about it and try to apply it to your own work!”

-Annabelle : instagram @tea.n.ink & linktr.ee/Tea.n.ink

“Love your art!” – Irina Richards

Kit list for Manga artists:

  • A good pencil or two (sharpened)
  • A rubber
  • Some nice paper (but any paper will do!)
  • A black fineliner pen – or you can use a handwriting pen or a biro instead
  • Some nice colouring pens or watercolour pencils (Irina uses Copic Markers)
  • A Wacom drawing tablet (not essential)
  • Clip studio – you can try this out for free!

Irina & Annabelle (one of Irina’s Manga students who helped with our Sunday sessions) put together a padlet of resources & challenges to help everyone along with their Manga drawing skills!

All the work below in our Manga Sudays GALLERY was created by participants during the 6 week programme:

www.irinarichards.com